The chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Migration has sent a letter urging members of Congress to oppose the Secure the Border Act of 2023 as an unjustifiable piece of legislation.
The committee chair, open-borders champion Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, insisted that the bill contains a collection of “harmful measures” and urged instead “the drafting of bipartisan legislation that is more in keeping with our nation’s rich tradition of welcome.”
Seitz, who has been described as “a hardline advocate for the rights of immigrants” and who has been “highly critical of efforts to restrict immigration by both Republicans and Democrats,” asserted that the proposed legislation would “undermine the rule of law.”.
The bishop’s objections to the Act include concerns that it would endanger unaccompanied children, “decimate” access to asylum, mandate “damaging” detention and removal practices, restrict legal employment access, and limit federal partnerships with NGOs.
Moreover, Seitz said that the bill would “expedite” construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, which he opposes.
“We have long opposed the construction of a wall spanning the entire U.S.-Mexico border, especially with the dangers it poses to human life and the environment,” he wrote, and this bill “would establish unprecedented authorities to advance border wall construction, which include the ability of the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive ‘all legal requirements necessary’ to ensure the wall’s expeditious design, testing, construction, and maintenance.”
In 2019, Seitz denounced President Trump’s border wall as a “monument to hate” and a symbol of exclusion, xenophobia, and racism.
Xenophobia is “ravaging the United States” in a desperate effort by Caucasians to shore up white privilege and perpetuate “institutionalized racism,” the bishop thundered, adding that anti-Latino racism had “reached a dangerous fever pitch.”
“Ancient demons have been reawakened and old wounds opened,” he declared, and this racism shows itself in an acute way in the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
“The wall is a powerful symbol in the story of race,” he stated. “It has helped to merge nationalistic vanities with racial projects.”
That summer, Bishop Seitz personally escorted a group of seven Latin American migrants who had previously been denied asylum in the United States across the border into the U.S.
Before embarking on the walk across the bridge from Mexico, Seitz publicly condemned the U.S. government’s immigration policies, stating:
A government and society which view fleeing children and families as threats; a government which treats children in U.S. custody worse than animals; a government and society who turn their backs on pregnant mothers, babies and families and make them wait in Ciudad Juarez without a thought to the crushing consequences on this challenged city … This government and this society are not well.
“We suffer from a life-threatening case of hardening of the heart,” Seitz added. “In a day when we prefer to think that prejudice and intolerance are problems of the past, we have found a new acceptable group to treat as less than human, to look down upon and to fear.”
Seitz said the policies reflected a “heart-sick government and society.”
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